Suture winding card



y 1969 J. E. DOTY 3,443,771

SUTURE WINDING CARD Filed Sept. 18, 1967 Fl G. 5.

INVENTOR JAMES E. DOTY FIG. 4. BY

MM7ITLJ-1 ATTORNEYS United States Patent i 3,443,771 SUTURE WINDING CARD James E. Doty, Broomall, Pa., assignor to Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Sept. 18, 1967, Ser. No. 668,426 Int. Cl. B65h 25/36; A611 17/02 US. Cl. 24285.1 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention Obviously the more that a suture kinks and becomes entangled the more diflicult it is for the surgeon to employ. In major operations where a large number of separate sutures extend from the patients body, the elimination of entanglements and separation of the desired suture from other sutures causes important delays. Heretofore, suture cards have employed suture support points equally spaced so as to wind the suture on a substantially circular path. When the suture is unwound from such a path substantial entanglement and heavy kinking results giving rise to the aforementioned problems. The suture winding path provided by the winding card of this invention eliminates these problems.

Summary of the invention A suture winding card has a pair of spaced means forming spaced suture support points which lie at the corners of a rectangle. The opposite ends of the rectangle have a length of from 0.4 to 3" and the opposite sides have a length of 2 to 3 times the length of an end of the rectangle. Adjacent each end and spaced outwardly therefrom, the suture is supported by a plurality of support points lying substantially on a 180 are running between the adjacent support points to cause the suture to substantially lie on said arc. The radius of the arc is from /2 to /3 the length of the adjacent rectangle end.

Description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of a suture winding card of the prior art,

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of a suture winding card in accordance with the invention showing how the card is rotated to wind on a suture,

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the suture winding card of FIGURE 2 with a suture fully wound thereon,

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the suture winding card of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is an elevational view of an extended suture unwound from the winding card of FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 6 is an elevational view of extended suture unwound from the suture winding card of FIGURE 2.

3,443,771 Patented May 13, 1969 Preferred embodiment of the invention By Way of introduction, a prior art suture winding card 2 of fiberboard or the like is provided with four equally spaced punched out tabs 4, 6, 8 and 10 providing suture support points indicated at 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26 for a length of suture 28. These support points lie substantially on a circle and cause the suture 28 to be wound on a substantially circular path. A slit 30 is provided in card 2 for the anchoring of the outer end of suture 28.

A suture winding card 42, in accordance with the invention, may be formed of, for example, heavy paper, fiberboard, plastic sheets or the like and is provided with punched out tabs 44, 46, 48, 50', 52 and 54 providing suture support points 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76 and 78. Support points 56, 66, '68- and 78 lie in the four corners of a rectangle indicated by construction line indicated at (FIGURE 2). Support points 56, 58, 60, 62, 64 and 66 lie on an are indicated at 82 (FIG- URE 2). Similarly, support points 68, 70, 72, 74, 76 and 78 lie on an are indicated at 84.

The ends of rectangle 80-, that is between points 56 and 66, and between points 68 and 78, each will have a length of from about 0.4" to about 3". The sides of rectangle 80, that is between points 56 and 78 and between points 66 and 68, will be of about 2 to 3 times the length of a rectangle end. The radius of arcs 82 and 84 will be from about /2 to about /2. of the length of an end of rectangle 80.

Card 42 is provided with a conventional central circular opening 88 and hooked shaped slits 90, 92, 94 and 96 to provide for securing a suture.

As seen in FIGURE 2, a suture 100 has its inner end 102 secured to slit and is being wound onto card 42 by rotating the card counterclockwise as viewed in FIG- URE 2, suture having been passed behind tabs 44 and 46. As shown in FIGURE 3, suture 100 has been fully wound onto card 42 with the outer end 104 having been secured in slit 92. Rather than a circular path, the suture 100 is wound on an alternately arcuate and straight path.

The winding card 42 of the invention and the prior art of winding card 2 are both suitable for use with the type sutures conventionally wound on cards, for example, a metal suture such as a steel suture and sutures made of catgut or synthetic resin such as nylon, polypropylene, and polyesters such as Dacron. It is well known that metal sutures are permanently set when they are wound onto winding cards and that catgut and synthetic resin sutures take a set after several days. The suture card of the invention by maximizing the pitch of the set suture minimized kinking and prevents entanglement.

After unwinding the suture 28 from winding card 2, it would have the appearance shown in FIGURE 5. By way of marked contrast, the suture 100 unwound from card 42 would have the appearance shown in FIGURE 6. It is clearly evident that by maximizint pitch the card of the invention provides the surgeon with a suture which is far easier to handle and which will minimize the time involved in handling sutures.

It will be tmderstood that the above embodiment is illustrative and is not intended to be limiting.

I claim:

1. A suture card having:

a pair of spaced means forming spaced suture support points, said support points lying at the corners of a rectangle having opposite ends each of from 0.4"

to 3" in length and opposite sides each of 2 to 3 References Cited times the length of an end, N adjacent each end of said rectangle and spaced out- U ITED STATES PATENTS Wardly therefrom a plurality of additional suture sup- 2,665,805 1/1954 SchaFfer 242-851 X port points lying substantially in an are between the 5 3,206,018 9/1965 Lewls 31 20663-3 adjacent support points to cause the suture to sub- 3,357,550 12/1967 Holmes et a1 24285-1 X stantially lie on the arc, said arc having a radius of from /2 to /3 the length of an end of the rectangle. FOREIGN PATENTS 2. A suture card in accordance with claim 1 in which 331,741 7/1930 Great Britain.

the additional support points are four in number adja- 10 cent each end of the rectangle. WILI eIAM S. BURDEN, Primary Examiner. 

